Ponderings of the Man from Mpofana...

A while back US sprinter, Noah Lyles, mocked the USA's sports trend of calling their national champions "World Champions" & he was right in doing so but the manner he did it rubbed many in US sports the wrong way. How can any team call itself "World Champions" if it has not beaten every team in the world? This led me down a rabbit hole, now I'm questioning how a knockout competition is a real test of ability? You beat the teams that beat other teams only once & not consistently & you sometimes don't beat every team you face. Knockout competitions are often just one leg, surely they could - at least - have two legs. A knockout competition where teams play each other just once almost seems cowardly. If FIFA World Cup qualifiers are like mini leagues, why can't the FIFA World Cup itself be a sort of league?  Imagine this; it's FIFA World Cup 2022, thirty-two teams divided into four groups. Eight teams each group & each national team ...

Rogério Ceni  Ricardo Kaká  Alessandro Nesta  Cafu Moraes  Andrea Pirlo  Gennaro Gattuso  Alberto Gilardino  Ronaldo Nazario  Filippo Inzaghi  Ron-Robert Zieler  Víctor Valdés  Carles Puyol  Gerard Pique  Sergio Busquets  Xavi Hernandez  Andrés Iniesta  Lionel Messi  Thierry Henry  Lucio da Silva  Sergio Ramos  Iker Casillas  Raphaël Varane  Álvaro Arbeloa  Toni Kroos  Xabi Alonso  Sami Khedira  Ángel di Maria  Manuel Neuer  Benjamin Pavard  Jérôme Boateng  Lucas Hernández  Javi Martínez  Corentin Tolisso  Thomas Müller  N'Golo Kanté  Julián Alvarez 

1968   Robert Kazadi GK TP Englebert & D.R. Congo Pierre Katumba DF " & "  Albert Mwanza Mukombo DF " & "  Pierre Mwana Kasongo FW " & "  1986   Ahmed Ramzy DF Zamalek SC & Egypt  Ashraf Kasem DF " & "  Tarek Yehia MF " & "  Gamal Abdelhamid " & "  1990   Larbi El Hadi GK JS Kabylie & Algeria  Rachid Adghigh DF " & "  Messaoud Aït Abderrahmane DF " & "  Mahieddine Meftah MF " & "  Moussa Saïb MF " & "  Nacer Bouiche FW " & "  Abderrazak Djahnit " & "  1996   Mark Fish DF Orlando Pirates & South Africa  Edward Motale DF " & "  Helman Mkhalele MF " & "  John Moeti MF " & "  2006   Essam El-Hadary GK Al Ahly & Egypt  Ahmad El-Sayed DF " & "  Mohamed Abdelwahab DF " & "  Hassan Mostafa MF " ...

As we all know, Apartheid dealt a big blow to the recognition of South African football globally, with both the Olympics & FIFA banning Apartheid South Africa from participating in international football from 1961 to 1992. And, unfortunately, ConIFA did not exist when South Africa was under Apartheid so individual South African tribes in the Bantustans or other homogenous tribal territories couldn't participate in international football.  I consider the 1970s the "prime" of South African football because this is where legends like Jomo Sono, Abednigo Ngcobo, Cedric Xulu & Patrick Ntsoelengoe were in their prime. The likes of Zane Moosa & Fani Madida came later but didn't match the hype of the 70s legends in any case.  Lesser known South African footballers While South Africa was banned from participating in AFCON, the World Cup & the Olympics, the South African Black XI did beat Argentina 5-0 in an invitational match which was testament to the level of...